The State of the Art of Information Integration in Space Applications

Abstract

This paper aims to present a comprehensive survey on information integration (II) in space informatics. With an ever-increasing scale and dynamics of complex space systems, II has become essential in dealing with the complexity, changes, dynamics, and uncertainties of space systems. The applications of space II (SII) require addressing some distinctive functional requirements (FRs) of heterogeneity, networking, communication, security, latency, and resilience; while limited works are available to examine recent advances of SII thoroughly. This survey helps to gain the understanding of the state of the art of SII in sense that (1) technical drivers for SII are discussed and classified; (2) existing works in space system development are analyzed in terms of their contributions to space economy, divisions, activities, and missions; (3) enabling space information technologies are explored at aspects of sensing, communication, networking, data analysis, and system integration; (4) the importance of first-time right (FTR) for implementation of a space system is emphasized, the limitations of digital twin (DT-I) as technological enablers are discussed, and a concept digital-triad (DT-II) is introduced as an information platform to overcome these limitations with a list of fundamental design principles; (5) the research challenges and opportunities are discussed to promote SII and advance space informatics in future.INDEX TERMS Information integration (II), space informatics, digital triad (DT-II), internet of digital-triad things (IoDTT), first-time right (FTR), space information integration (SII). FIGURE 2. Technical drivers of II applications.

Special Issue on Industrial Information Integration in Space Applications

“…A wide scope of the responses to this SS from so many scholars in multiple disciplines has confirmed that advancing SII is challenging but crucial to meet some unique requirements of complex space systems in terms of latency, heterogeneity, communication, networking, security, and resilience; many research problems remain unsolved, newly developed information technologies should be widely explored in SII for sensing, communication, networking, data mining, and decision-making supports of complex space information systems [4]. The editorial team would also…”

“…The accepted articles in this SS have shown a high diversity in research topics, methodologies, and objectives. Their main contributions are summarized in four categories as follows [4].…”

Untitled

“…A space product does not appear in any binding act of law. Rather it is a concept that is being discussed in works regarding space-based economy (Engelbert & Harper, 2022;In-Space, 2022 ), materials and life science in outer space (Seoane-Viaño et al, 2022), orbital manufacturing (Bi et al, 2022) and patent law (Burk, 1991). Its relations to space law are minuscule, as manufacturing of a space product falls under national provisions for authorization and supervision under article VI of the OST -as they mostly do not affect any other space object besides their manufacturing space factory (Abeyta, 2017).…”